Comey, in protracted testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, insisted it was a “fairly easy judgement” for the intelligence community to decide that Russian President Vladimir Putin “hated Secretary Clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was he had a clear preference for the person running against the person he hated so much.”

Comey’s comments once again raise questions about how much of the intelligence community’s narrative on Russia is simply a function of them starting with the assumption that Putin hated Clinton and just accepted all the allegations because they fit into that narrative.

President Trump went on to insist that the entire Russian story is “fake news,” adding that the whole thing was made up by the Democrats “as an excuse for running a terrible campaign” and losing in 2016. This has been a recurring claim from the president.

Tom, I don’t think Trump is analysing anything…As a New Yorker who has watched him for over 40 years, I can tell you that this is classic Trump. Deny, obfuscate and (most of the time get away with things). But this time, he didn’t realize this is the big leagues and he may not be able to get away with it as usual. And so, he’s running scared as he sees the noose tightening. You can tell by the flailing, the unhinged, early morning tweets, etc. Just think about it objectively: There have been too many questionable meetings between various individuals in the Trump team and unsavoury Russian characters for it to be a coincidence. Add to this the denials from the likes of Flynn, Sessions, Page, etc. Seems to me the news is true, the denials are fake!

I don’t know if the “news” is “true” nor the denials “fake.” What I do know is that I think Trump is quickly realizing how far in over his heads he really is and this is the source of the “panic.” I also know that there is this feeling that there is something else going on that all this BS is hiding.

Is colluding with Russia really that bad?
Wouldn’t a Russian control of the failing US be a good thing?
It would eliminate the risk of nuclear war and bring real Americans their lost pride.
Trump may be on to something.

In my youth, the major enemy of the United States was portrayed as a political dystopia, where persons could lose their jobs for espousing the wrong political beliefs, and the state monitored every form of communications of its citizens. They also actively interfered, including militarily, with other nations in order to further its own version of political organization. Well, we have met the enemy and it is US.
As pointed out by David Stockman, the budget of the intelligence community, along with the various other organs of federal law enforcement is $75 billion, which is more than the entire military budget of Russia. The clear and present danger to the US republican democracy is our own internal state organs – not a regional power on the other side of the world.

Why this nonsense about Putin “hating” SoS Clinton? It was she who called Pres. Putin “Hitler”, not only offensive, but breathtakingly hubristic and ignorant when the Red Army was the one to defeat the Nazis while the USA came into WW2 very late. Putin before the election said he was willing to work with whoever the US chose as POTUS, he knew H. Clinton and expected her to win.

That was before the world learned of USSR gulags and Stalin’s murder of millions of Russians. Imagine if Nixon had hired KGB thugs to break i to the DNC (instead of GOP thugs) — no pardon would have saved him. Now, we have Trump inviting Putin thugs to break into DNC … Impeachment anyone?

Robert, how about turning off the Bolshevik media and do some real research? You were right and sensible until the second paragraph, when you completely left the rails. Trump never did such a thing, and Putin’s IT experts never broke into the DNC. It was CIA hackers posing as “Russian hackers” who broke into the DNC servers.
In addition, Wikileaks dumped the “Vault 7” files, exposing the CIA’s and NSA’s surveillance of not only Trump, but foreign leaders such as Merkel, Hollande, et. al., as well as US and foreign citizens.

Sorry Eileen but you are looking at this from the wrong perspective and that seems to be domestic US politics.

The real point Eileen is that Russia does hack and spy, the same as all coutries hack and spy on others who are not just their foes but their friends. And it just doesn’t matter! Trump’s foes have just turned into something that the American people ‘think’ matters.

And beside the point entirely, good for them if they can destroy Trump with it because it’s necessary to destroy him sooner as opposed to later. He’s a threat to the entire world, and a threat to your own country in so many ways.

Eileen,
First, I said “What if Nixon…” Second, the whole world saw Trump on TV asking “Russia” (i.e., Putin), to hack the DNC, and he apparently did. CIA/NSA are just doing their jobs. Despite your paranoia, I doubt they are reading your email. I think we need to see some proof of anything Wikileaks says (leaks). How do we know Julian isn’t a psychopathic liar as well as an alleged sexual predator?

Yes, the CIA/NSA are just doing their jobs, as they did in creating the WMD’s that justified our invasion of Iraq. These are really good people? Hundreds of thousands died needlessly. They excell at manipulating public opinion.

Thomas, something very important has happened. Raimondo is now concentrating on bashing on the Dems and their media and that’s right on target! I didn’t read the whole thing because I didn’t think it was important enough to spend time on but I got the gist that’s important.

Now, if he can stay away from his support of Trump and come to understand that to bash on one side doesn’t require support of the other side (Trump) then the awakening could be in the works. That is so important and that’s exactly what he can’t get his head around.

Like I said, I didn’t read the whole thing so I hope I didn’t miss any Trump support. In any case, it would be an article on which I could commend him if I was allowed to post there. No big deal because most likely some others will see the possibility of an awakening too. I’m hoping you will see the opening and make mention of it too. Or not, if you don’t see anything new happening?

So this could be his way out of his box. Especially when the homepage is now full of evidence on Trump setting the stage for ‘escalation’, or indeed ‘escalating’, depending on how you view it. Stories on N.Korea and one on congress opposition to Trump’s plans for Syria, and several others by Ditz on stopping Trump in general. Nothing on Iran but we know Trump has plans of destroying the deal there. Or in other words, lots of stuff for Raimondo to pick up on if he’s looking for an opportunity to go straight.

Also, I would say that any illusions of Trump moving in the direction of JR’s libertarian preferences, should be dispelled by now. Trump is only making government bigger vis a vis the military so there’s nothing for Raimondo to gain out of that.

Seriously? If Obama was US intel then he would have never allowed the Iran nuclear deal of the ‘red line’ speech demands on Assad to be fulfilled. US intelligence would have been solidly onside with the PNAC agenda. Wouldn’t it?

A US president is always on the same side as US intelligence. Maybe excepting in the case of Trump who is so crazy that even his spook agencies can’t be with him?

You seem to think that past affiliations are some kind of inerrant predictor of policy once someone is in power. I’ve seen no evidence for that proposition.

Obama’s pedigree (son of an African socialist politician, raised in a cosmopolitan environment including several years of childhood in Indonesia), education (Occidental College, one of the CIA’s major recruitment centers), followed by his unusual travels (e.g. Pakistan at a time when US citizens were cautioned against traveling there) and then by his acceptance into the Ivy League (he must have had patrons with influence) are atypical in ways that smell strongly of Langley, Virginia.

Is it possible that he was not a CIA operative? Sure. But as to whether or not he was, I’d rate it between “possible” and “likely.”

Why didn’t the FBI have any concern with nutjobyahoo influencing the 2012 election? He hated Obama and openly campaigned for Romney. Never mind him going before congress and trying to get the Iran nuke deal squashed.

Thanks, it wasn’t clear to me. And yes, he did. And he’s far from alone in trying to get the Iran deal squashed. That which stands out starkly in contrast to anything good coming from Trump, is that he is promising to squash it too.

Is it really possible that Raimondo would be standing opposed to that deal? I would suggest that he could at least rise above that kind of warmongering bullsh-t?

Also if you Refer to that Land being called Palestine, that is just what the Romans called that entire area after they Conquered it. Even the Palestinian People didn’t exist as Palestinians back them because they were known as Philistines!

Of coarse Putin hates Clinton. Everybody does. That doesn’t mean a cool-headed strategist like Putin is reckless enough to bet on a human-car-crash like Trump. Only the American electorate is crazy enough to make that mistake.

Ah yes, the old anti-Semite accusation. The only thing I said was the PM of Israel tried to influence the US election AND its foreign policy. What would I be if I said the same about Russia? I couldn’t possibly be critical about a country’s government because it’s Israel after all and that’s not allowed without being called an anti-Semite.

You might want to re-read the Bible if that’s where you’re getting your history. According to it, the Israelites invaded Canaan, putting much of its population to the sword and driving the rest into exile. Unsurprising that occasionally their victims fought back.